VALEANT SHORT SELLER: My new report won't have 'anything earth-shattering'
Left had previously suggested on Friday morning that he had more dirt on the company.
On Friday at 11:45 AM ET, while hedge fund manager Bill Ackman was hosting a four-hour long conference call defending his position in Valeant, Citron Research tweeted that it was going to release an updated report on the embattled drug giant Valeant on Monday.
"$VRX has a better chance of going to 0 than $HLF ever will," Citron tweeted, adding that the story was "dirtier than anyone has reported!!"
The $HLF in the tweet referred to Herbalife, whose stock Ackman is short - for almost three years he has been betting that its stock will go to $0.
The Tweet, which has been retweeted 184 times, sent Valeant's shares even lower. The stock ended down $17.70, or down 15.87%, at $93.81 per share.
"Mr. Left and Citron have already made one set of false claims about Valeant's business in an intent to profit by driving down our stock," Valeant rep Laurie Little said in an emailed statement on Friday.
"We have shown his previous charges to be completely untrue, and our outside counsel has met with the SEC to request they investigate him. We have no doubt that he will continue to mislead investors about our business, and we will be ready to respond accordingly."
Ackman's Pershing Square Capital has lost close to $1.9 billion on paper this year on its Valeant bet. Much of those losses have happened in the past two weeks.
Shares of Valeant crashed more than 40% since Citron published a report suggesting Valeant may be operating as an Enron-like fraud.
Citron's report focuses on the company's relationship with Philidor, a specialty pharmacy that distributes prescription drugs for Valeant. Valeant is the only supplier to Philidor, and it also has an option to buy the company. No one on Wall Street had really heard of Philidor until earlier this month.
Citron has accused Valeant of using Philidor to create "phantom sales" of its products.
Ackman said on his investor call that he did not think Valeant engaged in deceptive accounting. He did add that he thought "some of Philidor's numbers are exaggerated."
Left has not disclosed his current position for his bet against Valeant. He has told Bloomberg TV that he does not discuss his trading. On the Pershing Square call, Ackman slammed Left for not disclosing his position.
Valeant has categorically denied the allegations in the original Citron report. The company hosted an all-hands call this past Monday to address the allegations.
On Friday, Valeant also said it would sever "all ties" with Philidor.